tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177Tue, 03 Mar 2015 16:44:31 +0000PoliticsCommunicationSerendipityOpinions on subjects of the day mainly as it pertains to common sense suggestions in improving the quality of life of all who are fortunate to live in this serendipitous island of Sri Lanka.http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)Blogger674125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-3238434724136287825Tue, 03 Mar 2015 09:37:00 +00002015-03-03T15:07:00.551+05:30The psychology of our psychology students – they need therapy! <div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I spent my whole Sunday last, introducing a Counsellor to four of our women’s societies, so that she could give them an indication of the work she does, and engage in group discussions with the members of the societies about their common problems and give some basic guidance on avenues to pursue in dealing with common day to day problems.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I had arranged for a Psychology Undergraduate Student the previously evening to accompany us to the 4 meetings, so that she could get some practical experience identifying common issues in the Community, and get the feedback from a trained Counsellor who has been doing this for 10 years, I mentioned to her, and she accepted that a day of practical work in the field is worth more than 3 months of class work and that she would benefit enormously from this exposure. When I arrived the following morning at the appointed location to pick her up, and she not being there, I called her, she cut the line both times and did not answer the SMS that I sent her regarding awaiting her arrival! &nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I was late for the first session due to her, and I contacted the person who asked me to help help her, and even he was not forthcoming or called back on why she was absent.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">In my opinion, for someone training to be a therapist being unable to call me and tell me she was unable to come due to some reason, meant that she was ashamed of not coming and was unable to get it together to tell the lie so she just ignored my calls!! This is a sign of someone NOT competent to even attempt the field she is in, as she was simply unable to own up and tell the truth regarding her state at the time. In short psychologically unhealthy, and she knew it or did she not? <br /><br />She must know that I will not call her next time, and as she lost a great opportunity to improve her skills, she has only herself to blame for her incompetence. This in short is the problem with youth in Sri Lanka, who lack commitment in anything they do. Small wonder they are unable to seek the thousands of jobs that are out there, and hold onto people’s saris in order to get a job, without searching out there for what is available. This is a practical example of what I have been extolling in my blog all these years about the employability of our educated people. They have NO vision of right and wrong good or bad, and thus are unable to think for themselves, being consigned to a life little more than slavery! &nbsp;&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">At the session, the concentration with which the audience was listening to every word was amazing, and there was no doubt seeing the audience engrossed in the lecture meant that I was convinced it was something important and useful for them in their lives. &nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .25in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;">IN speaking with the Counsellor, I was saddened as to how limited these services are to people in Sri Lanka, and NOT EVEN a fraction of the need in the community can be satisfied with the services available in this Country, and there is little effort to increase the output of this resource, that can be done extremely easily as the need for high tech equipment is not necessary, but the use of good teachers as always is necessary, and very hard to come by. This latter shortage MUST be filled by requesting the resources from the International Community to train these people, as there are at least 50,000 potential jobs that the community needs to fill over the next 5 years in the NEW FIELD of Counsellors, for Schools, District Secretariats and other Mental Health related services.&nbsp;</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-psychology-of-our-psychology.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-6026696754963270228Wed, 25 Feb 2015 01:47:00 +00002015-02-25T07:17:11.442+05:30Typing - oh so simple but no one can do it! Those who are looking for jobs that is<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I am inundated with calls, drop-ins and CVs sent via my Boss who receives so many each week on his work, for employment. However it appears that none of the above know what it takes to pick them in preference to others in the competition for employment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">In Sri Lanka unfortunately, the job seems to the seeker to be a God given right, and if a politico or a friend of the family cannot fix that, then there is something wrong with the individual who can help with finding employment for this “oh so darling offspring”. The real problem is with the offspring, who has NO clue how to go about getting this elusive job, and the simple things that can make a difference.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I am now aging, but my mother sent me in my school holidays, (I was at Boarding School in England and had a two to three month summer vacation when I returned home) to Sinnathurai’s School of Typing it was called, off Mile Post Avenue, Kollupitiya, for shorthand and typing classes, and for the life of me I never realized why! I just went. For a 14 year old amongst all these older women training to be secretaries I was quite out of place.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The long and short of it, I learned the basics of touch typing here, on these huge clunky typewriters and at the dawn of the internet, before high speed broadband in the days of Yahoo Messenger first version and “You’ve Got Mail” sounds over 15 years ago, in the USA, I perfected the art of typing at high speed, as I could chat with over 8 people at the same time on 8 different boxes on my PC in possibly 8 different Countries in the world, and in order to do this as conversation was all in typing then, without much effort automatically gave me the edge in speed typing. To Say nothing of Multitasking as the conversations were on diff subjects<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">My abiding regret is not learning to touch type in Sinhala, but in my desperation due to the lack of others who can, it may be the last thing I learn seriously,&nbsp; so I can blog in Sinhala and use it in numerous areas of work here in Sri Lanka.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I gave this background above to show, that the ability to type in Sinhala or English and preferably both is almost a sure license in the job market that puts you to the top of the heap when it comes to being interviewed and getting the job too if other qualifications are similar.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I try to explain this to potential candidates I speak with all the time, and they fail to comprehend this importance. Funnily though our offices are desperately looking for Sinhala typists and in this case we are looking for those from our constituency, as it will not be politically correct to get from other areas, and despite the need for 4 people, we are still unable to find one who can. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Many come saying that they can type, and when tested show their true colors of believing that they can, when they just have no clue, and think typing is punching one letter at a time with their index finger! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">So any of you who are looking for an entry level job typing various letters in Sinhala at speed for a Minister, and you are from Biyagama, please let me know and will test you out. To be politically correct I would face the wrath of the Party if you are not UNP! Damn! &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2015/02/typing-oh-so-simple-but-no-one-can-do.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-5123152201809255588Tue, 24 Feb 2015 10:51:00 +00002015-02-24T16:21:13.185+05:30The battle for redress, resolution and recompense<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I am inundated with requests every day, from ex-servicemen who have suffered under the previous regime, who want their cases re-examined the requested redress immediately made to them. The follow up calls on status reports is unending.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">If one did not understand the history, one would merely assume none of their grievances had any merit. However it is become quite apparent to me how callous the previous administration of the Rajapakses were to people who they believed rightly or wrongly not to be their supporters. These are to soldiers who fought and got injured in the course of their duty, something we would never believe if we did not know the truth. So much for protecting the forces, ex-servicemen that is just a myth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Ironically this administration has already undertaken policy turnarounds that return the dignity of the forces the Rajapakses have destroyed with the imminent removal of 18,000 from cleaning duty, and construction work for UDA. Actually it is not any different to slave labor.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I digress from the point I am trying to make. Each of these hundreds of cases has to carefully examined, due to the possibility of a few where the bona fides need checking. The Ministry is overwhelmed with the volume of these requests, and the infrastructure is still of people of the old regime, to whom if these files are sent, will purposely sit on them, to discredit their superiors.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">From what I know at present it is just the famous 10 that Sarath Fonseka intervened upon and had reinstated that have got their jobs and ranks back and there are thousands in the waiting list for similar reviews of their cases.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">I trust that the new Commander of the Army, will (as he is one who has also received justice after being put out to pasture in Russia, as he was more senior to the retiring Commander) understand this pressing need, and ensure the sections under his command that look into each and every claim for unfair dismissal fairly, and come up with as speedy a resolution as possible in these cases. I also believe if there is a central depository for such claims that it is better rather than some who go via the elected Politicians, hoping for a speedier resolution that they practically cannot do except by breaking internal procedures, in much the same way that orders were issued by the previous regime, WITHOUT any recourse to justice or fair play. The sooner we depoliticize this process, the better it is for claimants to understand we no longer live in a world where only favorites rule, only the deserving instead.&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-battle-for-redress-resolution-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-1676382674028975109Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:14:00 +00002015-02-23T17:44:56.303+05:30What can be done when all one receives are allegations of non-performance by the new Government, regarding the past regime's crimes?<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I get hundreds of calls every day over a number of matters and I will just note here those merely relating to the speed with which people’s expectations are fulfilled. People who call me on this subject are generally dissatisfied as to the pace of change that has been promised.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">So let us start with two sms I received today, from a person I have no idea, how he got my mobile number and who currently lives in Australia. I will give his mobile number to reply to if any of my readers wish to concur or proscribe the said frustration of the writer! +61 4204 84844<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The one at crack of dawn this morning was:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">“You guys are cowards. Just taking no action at all. It has been close to 55 days and major thugs are still freely roaming. Kudu Dumiya and Mahindananda and Wimal are laughing from their asses off. Shame on you all. If MR won the Presidential Election you all are counting bars right now. Be brave and show some guts and balls while you all have the power you gutless idiots. We worked tirelessly on FB and try to convince people to vote on you morons. See Arjuna’s brother , he still acts as if nothing has happened. List goes on!” &nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The follow up a few hours later read as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">“Ponna aanduwa thawama nakath balanawa, loku hour allanna. Rate podi ekata eka neethiyak, loku ekata thawa neethiyak. Thuk nodakin”<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">This is just one example of a litany of similar calls, messages and letters I have received where people, the public are fed up that one of the main tenets of the 100 day plan, namely of bringing criminals to book are NOT going at pace especially in view of incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. The example used always is that anyone caught with some ganja is first taken first to the Police Station, beaten up, and then locked up before asking any questions, or being permitted even to obtain legal assistance. Whilst the big rogues are still roaming free, with NO serious attempt at investigation and prosecution. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Further the talk in the street are of deals being done behind the scenes, where big money (looted funds) are exchanging hands from one side to the other in exchange for limited or full immunity from prosecution, with intermediaries cashing in big time with personal financial gains for access to the elite in the new Administration.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">These are serious allegations even if just figments of imagination, and it is very important the infant administration is able to nip these allegations and even set up a 24 hour investigating teams to speed up on investigation and prosecute the guilty.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is very important that there are genuine attempts at clearing the air and a media show made to show that some of the big fish are treated like the common criminals they are, no matter they were recently in very high and powerful positions. We cannot as a country protect those who have put innocent peoples’ lives at risk, forced a flood of drugs, alcohol and other crimes on us from their lofty positions even using diplomatic immunity of VIPs to smuggle currency our and bring contraband in.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">These were promises made which must be kept no matter what, and when the President who is not directly involved is able to point the finger at the Govt. there is none other than the PM who unfortunately has to shoulder this blame as the head of Govt. Even the loftier than thou personas such as Champika Ranawaka and the Ven. Athureliya Rathana Thero &nbsp;are making the same allegations, to say nothing of the JVP success at cashing on this good fortune, as they were neither tagged with the past Regime and not with the present, especially as half the current Govt. is still accused with the past regime of NOT doing anything to reverse the allegations whilst they were in Govt. when in reality their consciences could have resulted in their resignation inspite of the threat of exposure if they had done wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Is it because there are many in the present Govt. with a criminal allegation in the Bribery Commission that they do not wish to draw too much attention to themselves in this quest to clean the mess? I don’t have the answer, as I am just as frustrated as my colleagues in the same boat, who have to face the daily barrage of complaints we send upstairs, without apparent success.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I am willing to accept that there maybe actions taking place to which I am NOT privy to them, but which taken in totality is an attempt at making redress as promised. However it is important the public understand by proper publicity that ongoing investigations are taking place to give them what they expect and prove wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Now no helicopters have emerged, no Lamborghinis have emerged, no tons of gold have been found, so there is a question of why? Has it been found and covered up, or was it not there in the first place, or have the crooks been able to hide this successfully that we have yet to trace the loot? Many questions no answers. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2015/02/what-can-be-done-when-all-one-receives.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-5781487313287571631Thu, 15 Jan 2015 23:08:00 +00002015-01-16T04:38:36.015+05:30“Poetic Justice” in its true sense<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Just a tad less than 4 years ago I was felled by the jeep carrying the security detail in the vehicle convoy of the Minister of Justice, in Minneriya just outside the Eastern Command HQ. My life as a farmer in the Polonnaruwa District, with a unique distinction of (not happened before or since in Sri Lanka) growing food in the Dry Zone and the Wet Zone and personally transporting and delivering to my customer base in Colombo of over 70 different food items on a weekly basis, came to an end!</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">See both <a href="http://www.rajaratarala.blogspot.com/">www.rajaratarala.blogspot.com</a>and <a href="http://www.villagerinsrilanka.blogspot.com/">www.villagerinsrilanka.blogspot.com</a>for details of these experiences.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">In a few hours from now my boss, will take over his tasks at the Ministry of Defence as the new State Minister of Defence of Sri Lanka. I have, after the accident and recovery (still recovering) been working with Mr Ruwan Wijewardene MP as his coordinating secretary and as yet, I have not been offered or taken any position within the Ministry which he is just about to take charge of.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">He has a very heavy duty in carrying out his tasks in a place that has during the last regime been accused of a myriad of sins, and in entering this hornet’s nest, one will have to tread with care in order to fulfill the expectations of the Nation that we have been entrusted in cleaning up the whole functioning of Government.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">If called upon to assist, I will do my utmost to carry out the required duties to the best of my ability. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">We have been presented with a very responsible task, and I am sure despite his youth and lack of experience, the Minister has what it takes in temperament, strength of character and personality to fulfill the duties entrusted.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">There can be NO other person in Government today, who commands the full confidence of the main players in this drama, mainly the President, the Prime Minister, the former President CBK, and other party leaders all at the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Let it be an example to others that anything can happen, and it has happened in Sri Lanka, where the unthinkable just a few months ago, has actually happened, and we trust for the benefit of our motherland. I wish to reiterate and remind the readers of my blog of the original objectives and intentions within it, which was to present ideas and suggestions for the improvement of the quality of life of those who live in this Country, and I have NOT merely restricted it to words, but to deeds as well!</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2015/01/poetic-justice-in-its-true-sense.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-8451798143810086988Sun, 11 Jan 2015 19:00:00 +00002015-01-12T00:30:00.571+05:30Now who is on for the Governor of the Central Bank? Time to de politicize<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I know there are a few jokers jockeying for the position of Governor of the CB, if only because Nivard Cabral held sway for so long since July 2006 till his abrupt resignation without being answerable to the new administration for the sins of the old.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Get a grip. President Sirisena would do well NOT to appoint a political person, as this is initially for an interim period till the next general election in May, 2015, so I would recommend an interim appointment of a person who knows the CB inside out, for a period of 6 months and a Political appointee thereafter after a transition period of learning of about two months.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The CB Governor is an important position, and should NOT be a part of the inner circle of govt. but should be merely an advisory role for Govt. where they ask him for his advice on some policy decision that the Govt. intends to adopt so he can minimize risk to the economy of that decision.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The obvious choice of the interim would be the biggest critic of Cabraal, namely WA Wijewardena, and if that is too explosive an ex CB hand Dr Karunatilleke who is a safe pair of hands at the helm and well respected within the bank.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Let me reiterate that this is temporary, to shore up the confidence of the people within the Bank who have been politically ostracized for not toeing the line with Cabral and who need to be rehabilitated back into the mainstream within the bank.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">ONLY an insider can do this task and NOT an outsider who will not be familiar with the workings of the institution. IT IS VV IMPORTANT to get the corrupted CB back on track, and some of the sins of the Cabral era will be exposed at this time too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Let us hope our new leaders are intelligent enough to understand these basics, without jumping like a bull in a China Shop to make hasty decisions on this matter, especially as we await a very important election to strengthen the checks and balances put in place for a smooth running of the economy in a transparent and open manner, with full knowledge of the stakeholders and NOT the secrecy, and insider information they have been able to impart to the big Political players to make fortunes at the expense of the people and the hapless EPF that has also been looted as a result.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Corruption in selling banking licenses and future interest rate cuts being notified have been very corrosive in the past administration and should stop now. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2015/01/now-who-is-on-for-governor-of-central.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-7511531025491926331Sun, 11 Jan 2015 06:39:00 +00002015-01-11T12:09:22.401+05:30November 21st 2014 to January 9th 2015 – What a transformation in 50 days!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEbfIC8n614/VLIZFEWedkI/AAAAAAAACHc/EbeilA9pyVc/s1600/DSC_0238.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEbfIC8n614/VLIZFEWedkI/AAAAAAAACHc/EbeilA9pyVc/s1600/DSC_0238.JPG" height="400" width="256" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The Event that few predicted would happen did in fact happen and the rest as they say is History &nbsp;</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Much has been written in the past few says since 7am on Friday 9<sup>th</sup> January, when Mahinda Rajapakse conceded, and left Temple Trees. I am merely adding to this in my own personal way, how I saw the whole campaign unfolding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">When the Newspapers on the 18<sup>th</sup>November 2014 displayed the 250 color pages of paid advertising wishing the President on his birthday, that would have cost the Government of Sri Lanka Rs125M, as I don’t think any of them were paid with money earned by anyone! I realized that this unnatural act would result in something big, and I did not know what it might be at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Immediately thereafter, when the President signed into law his intention to seek an unprecedented 3<sup>rd</sup>term, as expected, this mythical word called “the common opposition candidate” was who we were waiting for! Every name under the sun was bandied about, except the eventual candidate. It also showed how people viewed the abilities of their proposed candidates, and on reflection, I don’t believe anyone of them would have been able to deliver, as their negatives, all exceeded that of the eventual candidate.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I was not privy to who and how he was chosen, and eventually the real story will come out, as currently only dribs and drabs of those who wish to claim credit have been put as a matter of record. On the morning of the announcement, I had a call from my contacts in Polonnaruwa asking if it was true that Maithripala Sirisena was the candidate, and I, though I was aware said I did not know, especially as he was a died in the wool UNPer who said that if he was, then he would NOT work for the campaign, especially as under his leadership in Polonnaruwa the UNPers had suffered much harassment and discrimination in all areas of life. I can also vouch for that as I, from Minneriya and Hingurakgoda, where I used to farm, had to contend with much of the results of this suffering, of jobs not being given due to affiliations, and samurdhi benefits being denied for political revenge, and such like.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The two photos that I have included in this blog entry were taken when Maithripala Sirisena came to the New Town Hall on Friday, 21<sup>st</sup> November around 3.30pm, before he went into the Hall, to announce his candidature in the presence of Ex-President Chandrika Kumaratunga and a whole host of crossovers that afternoon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I know many people will say that what happened after that is as they say is history, and I will elaborate some of the significant developments in the interim, with personal anecdotes.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">We were eagerly expecting the 22 crossovers soon thereafter and that did not happen, and I heard many people grousing, why he was permitted to be the candidate, when he was not able to bring whom he had promised!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Then at the Christmas Party of one of the most prominent Businessmen in Sri Lanka, on the 5<sup>th</sup>, where even the current PM, Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe was a guest there was grave doubts about pulling this off. I had to assure the guests we could do so! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Then as the campaign got into full swing, we heard of the organizational chaos of the campaign HQ. Whilst this was not so at Sirikotha, it was an even bigger problem for us, where we just did not have the funds, to carry out even a percentage of the work we wanted to carry out, as the Party was just not given the funds by anyone, as I presume the big boys did not think we could win, and other expenses given priority.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Our part of the campaign had to be done on a shoestring, and we had to rely on the dedication of many of the young people who came to work with us. I was able to get a limited number of posters and campaign literature printed under the patronage of my boss, and so we had to be very careful in their delivery. I gather even the money that the Organizers of the UNP received were little and at the last moment, and not all received their allocations. Some were not able to get organized by that time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">CBK on the other hand had received a large chunk of change from a benefactor, which she used, like father Christmas to both buy loyalty and dole out for campaign expenses, though she did not have the organization we had, and therefore money was not used in my opinion productively. We could have done 10 times more productive work for the Rupee in that sense!!! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I was glad that the Candidate said that he would not try to compete with the President on cutouts, and the President had looted enough funds to run a very expensive campaign where even with the full use of the state resources, he was able to dole out money willy nilly for ads, posters, cut outs decorations and campaign offices (empty) at all corners, breaking all election rules, and use intimidatory tactics.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is therefore under all these incredible odds, that we pulled this off. As the Independent Elections Observers report pointed out, the whole weight of Govt. infrastructure was used by MR, and despite the odds and a record turnout (81.5%) which could favor him as much as us, has given a firm indication of the people’s mandate for Change. I am getting a lot of calls now, from people who have not called all this time! Where were they when we needed their help desperately, and we had no one who would help us even with the chump change? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J6HKdyrUsow/VLIZYaJvDeI/AAAAAAAACHk/modnyp1cisg/s1600/DSC_0239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J6HKdyrUsow/VLIZYaJvDeI/AAAAAAAACHk/modnyp1cisg/s1600/DSC_0239.JPG" height="400" width="265" /></a></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2015/01/november-21st-2014-to-january-9th-2015.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-8782131482022440985Wed, 07 Jan 2015 04:43:00 +00002015-01-07T10:13:02.540+05:30Finally let us wish all Raputins are finally laid to rest – Astrology in Politics!<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I have been approached by some significant Astrologers to request publication of their analyses of and predictions for the Presidential Election to counter the President’s astrologer’s influence on this subject in the local press.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It was apparent that there are opposite points of view of astrologers, and if this is a science then it is simply based in falsity, and if it is an art it is merely just a work of ART fiction, and figments of our imaginations in believing what we do. In a country obsessed with horoscopes especially in choosing one’s life partners, which have NOT shown any consistency in predicting marital bliss, what hope MUST a country have with astrologers predicting the Country’s outcome, as well as significant milestones such as elections, which obviously affect the destiny of the Nation and with that its People.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/world/as-vote-nears-astrologer-for-sri-lankas-president-faces-ultimate-test-of-his-skills.html?_r=1">http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/07/world/as-vote-nears-astrologer-for-sri-lankas-president-faces-ultimate-test-of-his-skills.html?_r=1</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The New York Times article today is just about the fate of Sumanadasa Abeygunewardena, the President’s astrologer who has held sway over the timing of national events affecting all 20M who live here. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is a lesson again for us NOT to be dependent on astrologers in how we live our lives, and in my experience it is a significant barrier to a fruitful and fulfilling and therefore satisfying life!!!!! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I hope the lessons we learn from this episode will be a defining moment over the reliance of astrology over events, and put a permanent damper in making predictions based on our favorite soothsayers’ interpretations. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I always tell people who are obsessed by this, that we as a country have NOT been any more successful than those that DO NOT for a moment use the influence of the STARS to determine the future of a nation, its elections and timing of activity, or even for that matter the moment a particular event is opened, inaugurated by laying a foundation stone or lighting an oil lamp.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">So once and for all, let us just use this Astrology as a play thing for amusement, blame when something bad happens! Just tell me when something good happens do we ever give credit to our stars that it was the right time for us? Answer that question and then you have the answer to our fears being managed not our rewards. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2015/01/finally-let-us-wish-all-raputins-are.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-1277797723256834775Tue, 06 Jan 2015 12:19:00 +00002015-01-06T17:49:25.055+05:30Now the wait to the finish line!! What is in store for the Country?<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I must confess I am biased and I have been waiting eagerly for a change since 2009, when I felt that victory of President Rajapaksa was about the past and had nothing to do with the future. Events have proved my hypotheses, but then the Choice, was between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, I don’t think a Sarath Fonseka administration would have been able to deliver, unless Sarath Fonseka himself had most of his Presidential powers clipped had he been elected.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is a shame that the allure of victory, and in his inebriated state, he was unable to wean himself for all these years, that resulted in the abolition of the 17<sup>th</sup>, and replacing it with the 18<sup>th</sup> and then the arrogance of seeking re-election two years prematurely, only because he thought it was the only method for another 8 years, deserves to be clearly and unquestioningly and more important prevented forever!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">In this very busy world with massive technological changes, it is actually quite unnecessary to be in charge of any Country, even at a much less level of power for over 8 years or two terms, and when the whole world sees that reality, when we have really have people who wish to re-write history, you know something is seriously wrong with their heads. No one wants people who have that disease to lead them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The few who do can be excused for not having read history, and studied human kind and human nature, no matter what type of policy you wish to adopt. This is what explains how such a polyglot of humanity, with hardly anything else in common were able to rally behind ONE COMMON PRINCIPLE, and that it is unhealthy for one individual to contest an election for more than two terms. I personally hope they will go further and ensure each term does not exceed 4 years and if we reduce the Executive powers of a President, we could even restore Parliamentary democracy, where other than for the Presidential Elections, ALL OTHER elections are held on one day say every 5 years, for local govt. provincial councils, if they still exist, and to the National Parliament.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The waste of time and energy, that I have witnessed in the 20+ elections, we have had in the last 4 years, is simply unacceptable, as so much could have been done with that wasted resource. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Whew in a few more days, people will be saying why it took so much time and waste of resources to wait till 8<sup>th</sup>January 2015 to make this change, and that we OWED our people this change long ago. At least be content with the phrase, better late than never, and better now than later, and make this change work for the Country.&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2015/01/now-wait-to-finish-line-what-is-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-2529315180668929516Mon, 05 Jan 2015 05:52:00 +00002015-01-05T11:22:27.968+05:30Education – Are mixed schools failing Boys?<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The A level results that were published a few days ago, highlighted the fact that in Sri Lanka, the girls perform at a much better level than boys. Be that as it may, whether right or wrong, another fact that emerges is that boys from single sex schools perform better, as there are hardly any boys from mixed schools at the top rung.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Another statistic that psychologists would attest to, is that age for age girls are more mature than boys, and by this it would imply that girls are more able to concentrate on their studies, set themselves achievement targets, and as they are in general less sporty, are able to focus on their studies as compared with boys. These are of course highly subjective, but would nevertheless fortify the reasons for the unbalanced entry into Universities for most subjects by girls, where even the Agriculture Faculties of Universities comprise many more girls than boys.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Just to explain one other point on the latter statement, the education system boxes people depending on their results, and if people get into Agriculture as the highest Z score course of study, no matter that most of these girls do not show any aptitude for that subject, after graduation do not use it in any form, rendering this National Investment a waste of scarce resources.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">There was an article in the internet today, on this subject, and I show the link below which reinforces my hypothesis, and Educationists in Sri Lanka should take this into account in re drafting the National Education Policy, which should concentrate on giving our youth an appropriate education to suit both the Country’s needs and the personal aptitudes and goals of the students.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2896303/Boys-educated-separately-16-stop-intimidated-girls-says-head.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2896303/Boys-educated-separately-16-stop-intimidated-girls-says-head.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The article however implies that up to the Grade 5 exam it does not matter what the gender is, and also if the classes are mixed. It is at adolescence that this becomes a problem, where hormones and maturity may collectively play its part.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Most Colombo schools are single sex, and most provincial schools are mixed, this may further aggravate the performance indicators of these schools, due the hypothesis above. The largest mixed school in Sri Lanka is Dharmapala Pannipitiya, with over 2,000 students. With increasing population shift to the Western Province and its resulting need for more classrooms, it is wise to consider the effects gender separation has on the education of the students there.&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2015/01/education-are-mixed-schools-failing-boys.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-173852485682917427Fri, 02 Jan 2015 17:00:00 +00002015-01-02T22:30:33.461+05:303,500,000 Adult Sri Lankans live more than 50km from the house their vote is registered or call home.<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">They fall into the following categories and the numbers are approximate to a level of accuracy + or minus 20% due to inaccurate data available.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Approximately 500,000 Sri Lanka Passport Holders who live overseas DO NOT have their details in a Sri Lankan electoral register for whatever reason.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">1,000,000 Sri Lanka Passport Holders who mainly work overseas, primarily in the Middle East, are registered to vote in their household in Sri Lanka as they have been entered by the Primary Householder on the register, with their ID number. (they will not vote as they reside abroad, and we currently don’t have a system to allow them a franchise in Sri Lanka.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">500,000 citizens who live in Sri Lanka are NOT registered anywhere, as they have not been included in their original household, by the householder, and they have been unable to register in their present home, some in rented accommodation, because it is impossible to get registered for the first time, without confirmation from the GN (grama niladari, of where they were previously registered,) that they are NO longer registered in that address!)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The balance 1,500,000 live away from their registered address, of which 500,000 have a postal vote as they have eligibility due to being Govt. servants on duty, and forces personnel. Of the remaining 1,000,000: 400,000 private sector workers go home at weekends to be with their families, and are most likely to go to their homes on Thursday 8<sup>th</sup>January to vote, taking a few more days off, subject to their employers permission as many in this category are domestic workers, drivers, security personnel in private homes and companies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">This leaves 600,000 people WHO cannot for economic reasons go home to vote!!!!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">They include domestic help. Security staff who are on duty on election day, unable to go home to vote, garment and industrial workers who are boarded who despite in some cases getting a paid holiday to vote, are unable to spend the Rs1000+ to travel, some of whom who may take one day to go home and another to return, and therefore choose even to take it as a rest day, and catch up on much needed sleep.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Don’t forget Sunday the 4<sup>th</sup> of January is a Poya Holiday as well as Sunday, Monday is a Bank Holiday, due to Poya falling on Sunday, so if Thursday and Friday are also days when staff are not working in the private sector, firms will be reluctant to be generous to their staff for time off for voting!!! This is a very practical issue.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The special exercise of sampling their intentions, that was undertaken regarding this which I was informed of this morning, is that 75% of this 600,000 would vote for Maithripala Sirisena, meaning a net 300,000 vote loss to him as a result. The MS camp DO NOT have a plan to transport them to their home areas to vote, so you the reader come to your own conclusion about this population of eligible voters.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I hope this analysis gives the reader an indication of the effective lack of franchise, and points to the need to extend postal voting for a whole new category of private sector worker in Sri Lanka. I have previously in a blog entry discussed the issue of a vote for those who reside overseas, and will not include that issue here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I welcome your comments, on how to tackle this problem, as I have already spoken to some contacts in the BOI zones of Biyagama and Katunayake who employ considerable number of workers from distant parts who are boarded near their work who WOULD NOT go home to vote as they cannot afford the expense! Even though their employers have agreed to give a paid day off. I have made this point to the employers that their staff vote will make a difference, but they are unwilling to subsidize the transport cost for that exercise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Another startling fact that comes out of this is that the 1.6M eligible voters who WILL NOT make the trip home amounts to 12% of the registered voters. Their opinions can make a difference to the result in a Presidential Election.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is therefore the duty of the legislators of Sri Lanka to enable as many citizens of Sri Lanka to exercise the Universal Franchise, and let us press our legislators that is their duty to do so at a future date.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Just like the technology has now eliminated the duplicate registering of voters as they are registered with a unique identity number, we can also enable one person one vote, no matter where they reside, and at least for all adults living in Sri Lanka no matter where they live. The marking of one’s finger when voting is sufficient to prevent a person voting more than once, and so let all vote at a Presidential, no matter where they are, just go to any polling station and show your ID and vote!!!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">How about it? Opinions and comments are most welcome on this subject. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2015/01/3500000-adult-sri-lankans-live-more.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-6764473224368062522Wed, 31 Dec 2014 12:30:00 +00002014-12-31T18:00:01.659+05:30In a Tax Haven like Sri Lanka, why should there be corruption?<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Sri Lanka is a rich man’s paradise. There is NO capital gains tax, no inheritance taxes, very low property taxes if any, and best of all to those who choose to declare their income ( a small minority of those who are in this high income bracket ) low income tax rates to boot.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">No wonder therefore that with high consumption taxes, on essential food, and VAT, it is the poor and middle class who singularly bear the burden of taxation in Sri Lanka.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">In this context why can’t we encourage fare play, where in business there is transparency, and therefore competition, so that the most efficient method is used in investment decisions to benefit the economy, and not as is the case at present, where projects on which high commissions, and no tenders are undertaken are those permitted, outside all business norms, costing the economy dearly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Just imagine if we had this transparency, where would our economy be? We would not have wasted the massive borrowings on unproductive investments, but have engaged in investments of benefit to the economy, and therefore could have increased the National Income to much higher levels at a more equitable level of distribution than at present.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">In my earlier blog I alluded to the fact that those who were with the Govt. got to cherry pick, even they would in the end have benefitted more, in an economy where the spending power of the people would be much higher than now, where only a few have the wherewithal to engage in conspicuous consumption.&nbsp; <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Lower taxes means that this is NOT a disincentive to investment, and outflow of money to other safe havens, and we can, not just be a Singapore, but a country enjoying a far higher quality of life to Singapore, where we do not have to engage in comparison, but in our own home grown development, where all the people enjoy greater benefits.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">I would therefore see greater investment in public transport, access to better education, healthcare and a more efficient public service, all of which will benefit the majority of the citizens, not just a select few. The govt. would not get involved in wasteful expenditure on running airlines, refining oil and with Mahaweli still supplying 50% of our electricity needs, as of yesterday, shows in real light, what investments have provided a return and which have NOT.&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/12/in-tax-haven-like-sri-lanka-why-should.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-811520588972012646Wed, 31 Dec 2014 06:13:00 +00002014-12-31T11:43:51.502+05:30Sri Lankan Business Heads – It is your ‘Heads’ that need to be examined<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The recent ‘momentum business forum’, where there were simultaneous simulcast of proceedings in 4 locations, which if they, the invitees did not know, was just a Political Meeting of the President in support of his candidature.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">At this event, in one of the panel discussions, the likes of Dian Gomes of MAS, Hiran Cooray of Jetwing, Ranjit Page of Cargills and CT and Kishu&nbsp; Gomes of Chevron, were extolling the virtues of this Administration that has overseen, a time free of incidents of Terrorism, and unparalleled&nbsp; growth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">If they were true business leaders, they would know that for an economy to prosper, not just themselves, there has to be both the rule of law, and transparency in the ability to prosper in a relatively level playing field, neither of which is in existence in Sri Lanka today, and is the reason for the traction that the Common Candidate is gaining ground, and imminent downfall of the hosts, within days of this forum.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">In that context it shows how woefully out of touch with reality, these supposedly esteemed businessman have been with the pulse of the nation, and to curry favor with one candidate over the opponent at this time, means they have chosen the side, that benefitted them personally as far as their personal wealth was concerned, no matter what may have transpired in the meantime to the majority of citizens of this country who have been led an unrealistic dream, that is soon unravelling right in front of their faces.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">These business leaders, if they had any sense, should have at least stayed away from publicly endorsing this regime, as inherently they were merely propping up a morally unjustifiable cabal. If they had the vision, and strength of character to stand up to this Peter Pan syndrome they engaged in, they would find succor with their fellow citizens to bat with the new boys.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Now they sound like, sick sycophants, with nowhere to hide, who have lost all credibility, and who certainly cannot ask for any special treatment from a new administration, until they have paid their dues and done their mea culpas for long enough, to regain some backbone. I am not singling the above out specifically, but they represent the cross section of the 5000 or so people in Sri Lanka that have plundered the coffers of the state, either knowingly or unknowingly to further their nests at the expense of the nation and thereby contributed to the Rajapaksa longevity, which could have been checked if not for their culpability in propping up an inherently rotten bunch of opportunists. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/12/sri-lankan-business-heads-it-is-your.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-8875178677333161420Mon, 29 Dec 2014 06:55:00 +00002014-12-29T12:25:15.771+05:30Pondering on what might have been if not for the need for omnipotence!<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">A president who had two more years under the constitution to govern with all his powers, appears to have thrown caution in the wind, and without reading and learning from history, has attempted to change the course of history and met his Waterloo!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is a lesson we must all learn, and it is simply this. When one is a servant of the Public, it is an onerous task to serve. Human beings seem to forget that whilst there is a level of public acknowledgement of power, a sense of duty to one’s own people comes with it, and that cannot be denied.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is therefore important to understand proportionality. When one exceeds that level of proportionality, a sense of entitlement sinks in, and insanity kicks in. It is in all forms of activity, not merely consigned to politics, but especially relevant in it . <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is significant and apparent in politics, as the reasons for getting into this vocation SHOULD be to improve the quality of life of those who we serve, and they should never forget that. As a public servant, we are paid by the public who we serve, and by no other master. It seems that most public servants in Sri Lanka seem to forget it. It is time we are again reminded of it, so that from the top, the examples that are made will flow back all the way down. Only then will public service result in an improvement of the quality of life of those we profess to serve.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">In this point in our Country’s history, if all are reminded of this basic point, we will be less likely to repeat this mistake. It is in that context that I appeal to those who have changed colors or sides, to put aside their personal ambitions for remaining in power, and remember those who have been fighting this administration for justice for a long time. They MUST NOT be forgotten, and they have a place of recognition and duty by those who have power, to reward that loyalty, dedication, battling the odds and sacrificing what little they have for principles to be recognized and compensated adequately.&nbsp; <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">There will be a sickening desire to grab, hold and retain power, especially by those who have held on to power. It is time they recognize their contribution, and admit their compliance with the regime that has abused this power, and ask for the people’s forgiveness for not renaging their positions earlier. Otherwise this bad example of the same old people doing the same thing under a different guise is NOT one that will change the behavior of the system. It is the system that needs transformation, not the initial cast of characters. Put that to the fore and the Country will prosper.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/12/pondering-on-what-might-have-been-if.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-7481553931885848806Sat, 27 Dec 2014 03:06:00 +00002014-12-27T14:23:47.337+05:30Tsunami ten years on – and families still remember never to forget<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">The poignancy of the Tsunami</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">&nbsp; </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">of 26</span><sup style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> December 2004 came back to me when a mother who had lost her son, wanted me to help her publish a tribute to him, in the Daily Mirror of 26</span><sup style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"> December 2014, which I after quite a struggle was able to do.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I was in my farm that fateful day, having only returned to Sri Lanka barely 3 weeks previously after a lifetime overseas, and was entertaining an Uncle and Aunt for lunch when horrific news started trickling in. As many as 35,000 Sri Lankans along with a number of holidaying foreigners died in those few hours of devastation, and in all, over 270,000 are known to have perished in the whole belt that was affected, making it one of if not the most devastating documented human tragedy of all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I note below some links to some stories that appeared in the internet today, about this tragedy so that we will not forget its implications, and the positives that resulted from it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/the-tsunami-of-2004-and-the-little-girl-in-the-christmas-dress-1.2881905">http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/the-tsunami-of-2004-and-the-little-girl-in-the-christmas-dress-1.2881905</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/sri-lankan-tsunami-survivors-decade-2014122685733134944.html">http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/sri-lankan-tsunami-survivors-decade-2014122685733134944.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="https://in.news.yahoo.com/aboard-sri-lankas-tsunami-train-anguished-hope-reunion-093937123.html">https://in.news.yahoo.com/aboard-sri-lankas-tsunami-train-anguished-hope-reunion-093937123.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2887172/The-British-girl-5-memory-lives-Fund-raised-honour-young-tsunami-victim-helps-build-children-s-hospital-ward-playgrounds-Sri-Lankan-orphans.html">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2887172/The-British-girl-5-memory-lives-Fund-raised-honour-young-tsunami-victim-helps-build-children-s-hospital-ward-playgrounds-Sri-Lankan-orphans.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2887148/Ten-years-Boxing-Day-tsunami-killed-270-000-people-13-countries-record-16m-Mail-readers-helped-rebuild-Sri-Lankan-victims-broken-lives.html#i-6aaf9e19766875de">http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2887148/Ten-years-Boxing-Day-tsunami-killed-270-000-people-13-countries-record-16m-Mail-readers-helped-rebuild-Sri-Lankan-victims-broken-lives.html#i-6aaf9e19766875de</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Let this be a reminder to all of us of the fragility of life, and the loss of those who are near and dear to us, especially when it is wholly unexpected.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">We must appreciate the time we pass on this planet, and try and make it fulfilling and satisfactory in all its ups and downs, and live by example so that we are able to appreciate what we have deal with unexpected tragedy, stoically. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 19px;">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brac/10-years-on-what-the-tsun_b_6378422.html?utm_hp_ref=impact&amp;ir=Impact</span><br /><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/12/tsunami-ten-years-on-and-families-still.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-7786373848663348011Wed, 17 Dec 2014 04:29:00 +00002014-12-17T09:59:15.413+05:30How about some relief for female headed households? MR & MS take heed!<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I don’t know the numbers involved, but it crosses all racial and religious lines, and in all honesty are a population mass that MUST receive a promise by both camps in this impending presidential election, if one is to have faith in any of their promises being fulfilled.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I know this blog is read by policy makers in both camps so before the Manifestos of both sides are published, I would argue there is a significant vote bank of people who would be part of these immediate families and their relatives who will no doubt see the need for assistance of their kith and kin, heading these one parent households.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is common knowledge that there are women lead households in the north, who are at the bottom of the economic pile, whilst war widows and their families have at least for the most part received the pensions of their deceased husbands and are not in the most dire of financial circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Despite that there are many many more women in the Southern areas at the bottom of the economic pile, whose husbands have either left them with their children, and NO support, and in some cases who have gone overseas, but who have not remitted the needed funds to their families, as they have found other concubines in their journeys.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The 12,500 or so Grama Niladari divisions in the Country and possibly even the Census data, will be able to pin point which these families are and what their financial circumstances are to give them the needed assistance to get them out of the proverbial classic rut, where due to small children who need care, mothers are unable to find or go to full time work that is available to fulfil the needs of the families. Every year all voter registrations forms are signed by the head of household. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">One does not have to be a rocket scientist to understand that the children of such households are MORE likely to fall through the cracks and become a burden on the state, be it involved in crime, and need incarceration or otherwise remain unproductive and unemployable as their parents were unable to give them the basics, and some even don’t finish school due to these problems, even though if given a chance they could become extremely productive citizens of the country. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Of course the form of assistance needs to be explained simply in a manifesto, but it must make clear that they will be relief to female headed households over and above their current entitlements if any, depending on family circumstances. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">&nbsp; &nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/12/how-about-some-relief-for-female-headed.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-3236345035829085578Sun, 16 Nov 2014 16:52:00 +00002014-11-16T22:22:42.127+05:30“Possibility Thinking”<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;">Anna Craft </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;">the co-founder of the journal ‘Thinking skills and creativity’ passed away prematurely of cancer</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/11/anna-craft-obituary">http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/nov/11/anna-craft-obituary</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">She was at the forefront of new thinking on education, coining the phrase possibility thinking to move from WHAT IS to WHAT MIGHT BE.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">This in essence is what ‘Kalpanakaranna’ is all about. One must think of tomorrow and no longer of today. The speed of innovation and new means to tackle today’s issues both of the mind and the body, its time we explore what might be, and not what is, and accordingly permit out imagination to run riot in thinking of the unthinkable. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">In our relatively mundane lives where there are so many things we just have to get through every day, and take a break in front of the TV just to relax, if we for a moment took time out of that relaxing time to relax in another way, by allowing our imagination to get the better of us, we may come out with some simple suggestions, to improve the quality of life, which we otherwise would not have been able to come up with.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The need to balance the physical and mental in life, is something we don’t think about. However that is the only way to get through the competing demands on our time, that others place on us, often due to their own inadequacies that are thrust on us as our own. This thinking of what might be, is a way to deflect some of that inward &nbsp;stress on our lives, that are caused more by others, due to their problems, and the power they have over our lives, either as a parent, a schoolteacher, a priest, or your employer or the person who is your immediate supervisor. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">My advice is to take some time out, first to identify the problem, (that is only if you feel there is a problem!) and then use your imagination, as to how to solve it by unconventional means. A problem of the day is the word much ill used, <b>the common opposition candidate!</b>If your really think about it, it does not matter a hoot who that can be, even a dog, so there is NO NEED TO waste time speculating who that might be, but be sure to vote for that symbol whatever it is to, get rid of the present, as a dog would do better than the present set of leaders, who have squandered our future, and that of the future of the unborn to such a degree, that few fail to use their imagination to measure, as it is immeasurable!!! Just think about it. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/11/possibility-thinking.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-3512718002896116927Wed, 22 Oct 2014 01:08:00 +00002014-10-22T06:38:44.204+05:30Voting Rights – A sensible suggestion by the BBS – Why have the main political parties not signed on? <div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The BBS has urged the Govt. to give voting rights to SL expatriates working and living overseas. <a href="http://www.dailymirror.lk/54735/give-voting-rights-to-the-sl-expats-bbs">http://www.dailymirror.lk/54735/give-voting-rights-to-the-sl-expats-bbs</a>This is something I have advocated in this blog previously, as it is quite common amongst many countries including the USA so to do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Of course it cannot be done overnight, and some planning has to take place, with the foreign missions which will be tasked with carrying this out, having to put in procedures, to ensure transparency and minimize fraud, something with a foreign service staffed by friends, family, and fraudsters will be hard-pressed to do presently.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Estimates vary, but I believe there are approximately 2Million eligible voters over 18 who are Sri Lankan citizens overseas. Their vote can make a significant impact on the result of the elections, and at present it is difficult to gauge who will benefit from their enfranchisement.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I suspect it will affect the large scale vote buying, where no end of goodies are offered just prior to elections, as that is something that cannot be done with the expatriates. The added importance of the expatriates, is that they directly contribute US$10B in remittances annually to the economy, which then with the multiplier effect is completely responsible for all the non-borrowed development that has taken place in Sri Lanka. Put simply, if the economy was allowed to have made market decisions, with NO Govt. interference, and corruption, the economy would have grown at a much higher rate, and the peace dividend accruing to the people would have spread much more equitably.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is only when the Govt. taxes this money, gives the remitters a low exchange rate (another hidden tax to them) and then borrows at high interest rate also, and take all this money, and divide the spoils amongst a few greedy sycophants, the gains to the economy are merely shared amongst a few as is, without any doubt the case in Sri Lanka today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="color: white;">If the reader has followed my train of thought carefully, it is pretty obvious that had this suggested change been policy for sometime,&nbsp; the Country would definitely have been a much better place, in better condition, and both the rule of law, and the level of governance would have ensured a better foundation from which this economy could grow. There are plenty of international examples of the benefit of this massive inflow of free money into the economy, and so we must make it POLICY &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/10/voting-rights-sensible-suggestion-by.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-8974951000463107336Mon, 13 Oct 2014 17:44:00 +00002014-10-13T23:14:24.062+05:30The Pre- Budget gimmicks, so the Budget is poised to read like a giveaway.<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">First there were the election gimmicks of fuel price reductions, and electricity tariff reductions. Then there was the gas price reduction, as mentioned in my previous blog entry. Now we have the cigarette and alcohol price increases, items normally announced in Budget speeches, but this time craftily reserved for pre-budget releases, so the Budget speech will just seem like a list of goodies for people including the much delayed pay rise for the Govt. servants who have been waiting since the last Presidential Election for this promise, that will be given partly just prior to the Next presidential Election, timed to hopefully fool enough people to think that Santa Claus has come to town. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">We must understand that the budget is a zero sum game, where to keep the budget deficit at IMF agreed levels, of a percentage say 4% of GDP, when one reduces tazes of increases subsidies, then they have to be covered by increases in taxes in other areas. Of course the Govt. hopes the zero sum game will actually work as they expect. That is just to be seen. As we are unsure how the people who are hardpressed will react to the increase in alcohol duties by purchasing less, which will reduce the Govt. tax take. Then the action taken will back fire. I do not have the answer to that yet. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">With impending Presidential Election the Pres is mindful of his precarious stock value, and wishes to give sizeable breaks and relief to people he considers his key constituency. Whether they buy this carrot is a wholly different thing. Let us hope that this time gimmickry for the gullible will be a ricochet rocket to the regime!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">To be fair thanks to the remittances of the people and no thanks to any action on the part of the Regime, the inward remittances will top US$10B, and with the slowing down of the economy, imports will slow down, resulting in positive improvements to the balance of payments, this will enable the Govt. to keep the Rupee strong, and keep the relative costs of imports down. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Therefore the comparative advantage is with the Govt. and they have the upper hand. The fact that they are in addition using unseemly tactics to fool the people into believing they are due more than their fair share is what irks me, and if they so do, then it is up to us to show them that it is wrong and explain to the people that these are merely window dressing gimmicks that we can point out as of not being of any benefit to the people in fact.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Let this be an eye opener to the advance tactics and await more with the budget.&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-pre-budget-gimmicks-so-budget-is.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-2480458706653477452Sat, 11 Oct 2014 11:50:00 +00002014-10-11T17:20:49.976+05:30Presidential Rule dictates’ into every reduction in price does not seem to be a smart move anymore!<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The latest instance where President demands a reduction of Rs250 from the normal 12.5kg Gas Cylinder, was met with guffaws! It is as if he wants to show the people that he is in charge of every price reduction, when in this case it was already mandated under the usual formula for negotiating increases and reductions in this product, as the world market prices fluctuate from time to time. It is important to realize that, in Sri Lanka, this does not happen each time for the price of petrol as it will just make it administratively cumbersome to enact. However with the future reduction in the price of oil on the cards due to fuel surpluses, this was an inevitable reduction that should have been announced by the Consumer Authority, and instead the President grabbed it to take credit. Tell me if the President would hijack it if they were to increase the price! Hell no it would be blamed on the Minister and the President would take credit by saying despite his imploring him NOT to raise the price he did it. What kind of stupid society do we live in?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">This same game was played when the Electricity Tariff was reduced by 25%, it was a political gimmick that was expected in the middle of the campaign, when the 3<sup>rd</sup> stage of Norochcholai was switched on. The Dispute with the Electricity Board is still raging, as to who is going to plug the deficit created by the President? It certainly wont be from the President’s fund. So now there is a search to tax other items to pay for the reduction in the Electricity tariff. Yesterday saw the increase in Excise Duty on a pack of Cigarettes, very soon in the Budget coming shortly we will see a hike in the Alcohol duties and taxes to pay for this profligacy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The recent reduction in the price of fuel was in the same light, and the extra reduction on Kerosene was merely an Election sop to the estate Tamil vote, that uses Kerosene still for a myriad of tasks, and was a bait to catch their vote! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">What is so sad is that the people of Sri Lanka are being completely fooled by these antics into a wrong sense of belief of the person of the President, and as the Opposition does not field someone so crafty and make similarly outrageous “seeni bola katha” to tap into the mass ignorance that pervades some Professors of Economics to simple folk who are not given the tools to use their common sense by the devious mental misleading games of the present regime.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Start with the Premise that this is a very rich country, that has been ruined by politicians for personal gain, and therein you may find the answers you have been looking for in securing the future of this truly great country.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/10/presidential-rule-dictates-into-every.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-3792823737442481848Sun, 05 Oct 2014 14:50:00 +00002014-10-05T20:20:40.672+05:30Catholics of Sri Lanka – Time for ‘soul’ searching and drawing a line!<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">There are a million votes at stake here, and it is time each and every Catholic understands what it is to be a Catholic!</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Sri Lanka has had 10 years of Dynastic rule, and as in all dynastic examples, power corrupts absolutely, when it is given to the same people for an extended period of time. This is true with the Presidential rule in Sri Lanka, and so it is with all the Catholic Politicians of the Government, who have been the real enemies of the Catholic Church. They have been unable to separate what it is to be a Catholic from what it is to be a yes man of a Despot. They have continued to reinforce the illegitimacy of unbridled corruption, by being corrupt themselves.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Remember there were Catholic Popes who were despots too, and it is high time the flock realize and hopefully be reminded from the pulpit, that it is easier for a poor man to reach the gates of heaven than for a rich man, who tries to hold on to wealth and power.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is even worse when the Ruler is completely oblivious to righteousness and sinks to the gutter like a guttersnipe to protect his sycophants. The latest example being just this week.&nbsp; The President of Sri Lanka was unable to reprimand one of his own, for reasons to be discussed elsewhere, and worse he brought him along in his hijacked plane to Rome to meet the Pope. (hijacked from the people of Sri Lanka who own Sri Lankan Airlines, and the citizens do not authorize unnecessary junkets with junkies in tow). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">After the bashing that Chris Nonis got from Sajin de Vass whatever the merits of (as in when you lie with dogs you catch fleas), he should have been asked to lie low for a while until the dust had settled. It was most uncouth of the President to call him to join him with his band to Rome, which left the Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith No Option but to prevent this convicted criminal being presented to the Pope, (though alas there were a majority in that party who were unconvicted rogues.)&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">However, in trying to appease a dodgy President, Malcolm Ranjith had to be persuaded by a close family friend Chris Nonis, from a well-known Catholic family, that it was indeed wrong, and disrespectful for this man to be introduced to the Pope.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">What is most disconcerting, and this MUST BE FULLY EXPLAINED to the Catholic flock, the President incapable of seeing the justice in this step, had the audacity to call Chris Nonis who has gone beyond the call of duty to be sycophantic to his patron, and tell him, why is he trying to create a rift with him and the Catholics, by asking the Cardinal NOT to permit Sajin de Vaas to have an audience with the Pope. Durrrrrrrrrrrr!&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is one thing in politics to introduce criminal Heads of State to the Pope, as he has to suffer that in silence and be polite, but completely another when known criminals also are presented to associate with him. It is time we pointed this flaw in our Presidency to the Catholic flock.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Now that the shit has really hit the fan, and all of Sajin de Vaas’s improprieties and amassing wealth have come to light, and the President is unequivocally siding with him, it means he has drawn a line in the sand to protect his friend at all costs, even at the expense of the people of Sri Lanka. It is not at all difficult to explain this argument logically, and it is the duty of the Church, and if they are frightened as they fear repression, then up to the elders of the Catholic Church, especially from the opposition to point this out in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS to the people without delay. If not the choices they make may go against their FAITH!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is no use citing the fact that the President’s wife is a Catholic, and that all his three children have been baptized as Catholics, that is not one for deflecting his true colors. When one is determined to hold on to power at all costs, they do not behave in a logical and humane manner, and all is for political expediency.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">What do you call a President going on an unsolicited visit at great public c expense? A sheer waste of the people’s resources, meant to fool the people into a false sense of importance of their leader. He simply GATE CRASHED THE VATICAN, and the Pope was just too humble to shoo him off like an uninvited crow.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">When Religion is misused and abused for personal gain, and NO OTHER REASON, then we must call a spade a spade and protest about it. We have two previous visits by Pope’s but in neither case, did the Head of State have to venture out to invite him. In any case the Cardinal has already issued the itinerary, so it is NO longer an invitation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">If he indulges in any more political gimmicks, I am sure the Pope will just overfly the Country, and make no bones about it that MR will be held responsible, however vehemently he will try to blame the opposition yet again for his own downfall and shame!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Time to be Christian, to let go of greed and avarice, and firstly invite all citizens of Sri Lanka to feel fully part of this great Country, and tell the BBS interlopers that they are living in a hallucinatory world that does not exist in reality, and it would be best for them to get a dose of real life, come out of their cocoons and engage with real people casting out the craving for publicity, the only real reason for their growth. It is clear that wiser counsel demands a new order of people’s power, not one person’s! &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/10/catholics-of-sri-lanka-time-for-soul.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-2730115777587516928Fri, 12 Sep 2014 08:08:00 +00002014-09-12T13:38:55.558+05:30The Institute of Chartered Accountants Sri Lanka – Leading students astray <div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is VERY regrettable that the Accountancy Profession in Sri Lanka, much to my disappointment, &nbsp;and all the pompous words emanating from their senior decision making body is going the way of the Rabid Dogs, like the Legal Profession and the Medical Professions before them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The Institute has just put out a series of half page ads costing millions, especially after the recently concluded A level exams, firstly showing with photos and names that the top 10 in the Island in the Commerce Stream at the 2013 August A levels have ALL consented to study for the chartered accountancy qualification carried out by the said Institute! This is an invitation if ever there was one, that this is the preferred mode for the newly minted lot too!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">A powerful ad like that will persuade any parent to direct their kids to that, by getting them first to enroll them in, first as students, then into a related tutory to follow the study course, and thirdly to sit for the first CAB exam the start in this long road to impending doom for the many. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="https://casrilanka.com/casl/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=67&amp;Itemid=78&amp;lang=en">https://casrilanka.com/casl/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=67&amp;Itemid=78&amp;lang=en</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Let us start with the enrollment of the students. There is an annual fee as a student who is enrolled, as without it one cannot sit the exams, and if one is late one is charged a punitive late fee too! To keep them in check and ensnared by force, and indirect threat of expulsion. The Starting fee is Rs7,400 see the attached and click on the registration and initial course fee.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">In a recent document from the profession they said that there were 45,000 students enrolled and at most 450 qualify a year. So we have 100 years of students enrolled! With at most 10% of students, who will be able to be employed either as part of fully qualified accountants the institute is&nbsp; fooling at least 40,000 of those students!&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">They have lost what they are here for, and have put petty personal and greedy goals infront of, and I have now come to the conclusion instead of the noble goal to create a product of excellence that can hold its own anywhere in the world with pride. It is them who can contribute directly by unparalleled professionalism to the rapid growth of the Sri Lankan Economy to achieve the targets that the State has set and an economy that is both equitably fair, and will be on course for a GNP per capita of US$7,000 by 2020. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">While I believe this goal is possible and do able, I don’t believe the profession by their action, is contributing to that target AT ALL.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I am speaking as one who is a Chartered Accountant and mercifully from the Institute in England and Wales and did not seek reciprocity with the local one, who qualified 33 years ago. I wish to add that I am not currently seeking to make it more difficult for qualified accountants to obtain employment in Sri Lanka, by presenting myself to the employment pool, and remind every applicant I meet for employment in accounting of this fact, as they struggle desperately to find a job.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I am writing in my capacity as an unpaid adviser to desperate job seekers, in tears due to their inability to obtain employment in the accountancy field. I have to firstly explain the plight the Institute has wronged them into, and secondly trying to get them to accept the current predicament they are in, and MORE importantly in doing my utmost into mentally transforming them into an optimistic person in their employment search, where they are willing to explore the possibility of other avenues to achieve their personal goals in life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I have helped those at various stages of qualification get jobs, (all without a fee, I might add, and as our culture has it, NO thanks from the person who gets the job once they are able to secure the position either!) In preparation for their job, I first have to get them to prepare a Resume at least worthy of getting an interview as most CV even from qualified accountants would not even get a look in if sent!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The gulf between expectation and disappointment, once they realize what the real world for accountants is like is mind bogglingly disheartening. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">MY RECOMMENDATION – Stop being indecently greedy, as the entry requirement is just too lax. Have an entrance exam that restricts the annual student numbers to only 2,000, but the exam must test analytical skills and NOT ability to pass exams. Take these 2,000 and give them the training to run any company on the face of the earth.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">You will then have an Institute that is respected worldwide and alumni that are likewise employable globally. The insinuation that the current syllabus has been upgraded to fit with the times and therefore will answer my allegations is just hogwash. That in itself is NOT enough, until you have people who are designated trainers who know how to get the most of the students under their tutelage. Let us hope those preening peacock primadonnas of the Institute read this, and &nbsp;act to save the profession from disgrace, and possible agitation against their unethical policies and misleading claims.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">No wonder accountants are NOT permitted to advertise. See what a mess the Institute has made by trying to do it themselves! One of the most misleading ads in Sri Lankan print media of late!&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-institute-of-chartered-accountants.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-3221145435204468886Wed, 10 Sep 2014 18:42:00 +00002014-09-11T00:12:00.370+05:30Embracing unsolicited foreign projects by way of high interest loans<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">A country must have a plan for the future, and it is generally the responsibility of a government to publish short and long term plans on how they expect the economy and society to perform. This can also be related to micro level projects such as road widening schemes, where people know well in advance, even 10 years ahead of roadways marked for widening, so that unnecessary buildings and parking reservations are made well in advance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is an indication of the lack of such, when we see some roads have sliced houses and shops in two, and as a result of the shops now on the roads, there is NO place for people to park, so customers are unable to come to the shops.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">In a more serious development, Sri Lanka has permitted China to take the upper hand and recommend projects to the Sri Lankan Govt. outside of the Govt’s plans.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The President of China will grace Sri Lanka with an official visit on the 16<sup>th</sup> and we are pulling out all the stops to give him everything he has asked for including the Free Trade Agreement that is in their favor as well as the whole “Kitchen Sink”!!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><a href="http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=local/exim-bank-fund-more-21-projects">http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=local/exim-bank-fund-more-21-projects</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is obviously very tempting to take on projects that seem to offer the sun, moon and stars, to someone still in the dark, having not seen either of the above. However their inclusion in and part of development policy is rather dubious. I do agree that when private foreign investment projects are presented for approval they also in some form are unsolicited, or to the extent they are solicited, is through a local agent, being rounded up to present a project but remember that is private with NO public money changing hands, except for legitimate BOI concessions within the law of the land. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The argument of whether Tax concessions in the form of tax holidays should be granted is a totally different subject that requires a separate set of guidelines, and apply both for private and public foreign investment. &nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The true measure of the economic benefit of unsolicited projects should be analyzed completely independently of the promoters, and question their relevance in current Sri Lankan investment and need climate. We don’t want empty islands in the Dubai World complex at Govt. expense in Sri Lanka when it comes to filling up the sea and building tropical villages and cities out of reclaimed land. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is further beyond ironic that the money spent on this investment is included in as foreign inward investment, when the whole project start to finish has no local component except for few construction contacts that are fractions of the value of the investment proper. The Revenue from the sale of property or buildings does not accrue to Sri Lanka, and neither does the investment in plant. It may&nbsp; as well be a Chinese project that is actually done in an offshore island in Sri Lanka, where we have given permission for them to come and use our resources, like power, water, construction labor and climate, as well as land or sea for their activity, because they DON’T have such agreeable climate and positioning in their country sans pollution!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Just think about it, what better way to colonize the world, than using one’s wealth to woo suckers to hand over their country, with nebulous promises of immeasurable benefits, so the one’s own Countrymen are able to enjoy the pleasures, one’s own Country does not have in some far off land.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">People could argue that this is sure to benefit Sri Lanka, when Chinese come in tens of thousands to live in Sri Lanka, so they would be able to spend their money here. I would argue, is it really what we want when we are already making it uncomfortable, for those who do not fit into the Sinhala Buddhist mould to live here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Granted we many not give them citizenship rights, but merely residency rights to live in their homes in Sri Lanka in port city or any other place they may wish to buy property in. The Bill in parliament yesterday preventing foreigners buying property will not apply to the Chinese as the concessions granted them, include giving them free hold rights in islands or land they have reclaimed from the SEA!! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">ONE MUST understand that 1 ½ Billion Chinese live in China. They are engaged in choosing poorer countries to find the most lucrative investments, as the Confucian ideology is to maximize one’s wealth, so one can do what one wants with it! Something which is quite alien to Buddhist Culture, which is to attempt to forgo all earthly desires, especially material wealth. It appears that our planners have forgotten that simple concept. They are also engaged in investing and buying property in rich countries too, but are willing to pay top dollar for that privilege which the host country does not mind. Here in Sri Lanka greed has taken over and we are permitting them to make sweetheart deals that benefit them more than us, as we are not capable of planning in the long term interests of Sri Lanka.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">It is time to take a grip on unsolicited proposals, and first plan what we want for a prosperous and serene future for Sri Lanka, and see if these projects will add to it. &nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/09/embracing-unsolicited-foreign-projects.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-4350501841959166880Tue, 09 Sep 2014 19:00:00 +00002014-09-10T14:38:38.318+05:30HOW MUCH MORE NONSENSE FROM GOSL? <div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: black; font-size: 19px;"><b>CKDU the silent killer !!</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">People are dying like flies in so many Districts due to CKDU and the Govt. of Mahinda Rajapakse continues to fart about it!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Time for action, even though it is about 10 years too late, exactly the time this Govt. has been in power. Since the day they came into power promising the subsidized artificial and highly toxic fertilizer, at 10% of the real cost to the state, the farmers had the extra money they would have had to carefully husband fertilizer to buy even MORE TOXIC GLYPHOSATE to kill the weeds and now we know themselves too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: black; font-size: 19px;"><a href="http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&amp;page=article-details&amp;code_title=109960">http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&amp;page=article-details&amp;code_title=109960&nbsp;</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I have farmed in the North Central Province for 10 years now, and know the mentality of the farmers, given a financial incentive or break, &nbsp;and ineptitude of the Agricultural Advisors and incompetence of the Agricultural Department, combined to create an explosive situation where more and more Districts of Sri Lanka are afflicted by CKDU, and the problem is making Ebola look like a walk in the park!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">This is a silent killer, I have reported extensively about it, and why is this Govt. passing the buck? Simply because there are 120 Ministers who don’t know what they are doing, and a donkey at the helm. We have a PM who is past his sell by date only because of indecision on the part of the GOSL hoping he will disappear or unwilling to replace!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The fact that this is the single most important killer, that is going to kill people for the next 30 years even if pesticides and artificial fertilizer is banned completely today, leaves NO option but to use its massive Army of 400 thousand people who are just nothing more than pavement and lawn sweepers with Ekel Brooms today, thanks to the lack of vision of the Rulers, to fight the most important battle the Country faces. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Why is everyone waiting for the next shock to hit the big screen, namely that of the fact that the use of pesticides will kill every live sperm that the SL male carries, so that we will have to artificially inseminate our women, to have children with foreign blood like the rulers, throwing this Sinhala Buddhist concept on its head, into a hollow cry from a dead race!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">Look no further than to the leaders of Sri Lanka who are doing a perfect job in destroying its population, so that they can rule forever in a land devoid of human beings. Don’t tell me I am right when it is too late. Challenge me today, and tell me I am wrong, and why. Everything we are arguing about now will be just hot air soon!&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-much-more-nonsense-from-gosl.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167149547535484177.post-3035087885607754888Tue, 09 Sep 2014 09:22:00 +00002014-09-09T14:52:23.070+05:30CEOs let alone Managers – It’s a problem finding dynamic people! REALLY?<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;">What do you think?&nbsp;</span></b><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I was reading an article that alluded to the possibility of Sri Lanka requiring to fill CEO positions using expatriate’s due to the lack of locally produced talent in the marketplace, due to a variety of reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Let us go back a little in recent history. All the well managed foreign Multinationals are run by 30 or 40 something foreigners, rising up the corporate ladder in their Groups. This has been the case all along, for Ceylon Tobacco, Nestle Unilever, Holcim, Standard Chartered and now the heads of the Chinese Corporations which are doing the Construction of Highways, and Ports. For example Nestle has over a 100% return on capital employed, a dream for Sri Lankan companies.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><a href="http://www.ft.lk/2014/09/09/shortage-of-ceos-to-meet-economic-growth-mti-exec-search/"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;">http://www.ft.lk/2014/09/09/shortage-of-ceos-to-meet-economic-growth-mti-exec-search/</span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">&nbsp;&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">The comment from this consultancy, is just an opinion from one who makes their money from talent search amongst other things, and we MUST be vary of self-appointed pontificators, who make claims. Nevertheless WE MUST address this issue carefully. I know of Sri Lankans, some now retired in Sri Lanka, who have held important positions in multinationals overseas, and therefore it is more about retaining talent to apply for the positions in Sri Lanka and less about hiring people from abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">We in Sri Lanka are saddled with the white man knows best concept whilst the rhetoric is the opposite. In this instance, the same job is done better by the foreigner merely because the subordinates are MORE willing to take orders from a non-National in preference to a local. Some mental block of our people, both at the executive level and at the unskilled laborer level.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">To illustrate the latter issue, the Local planters were never able to have the same perfection and discipline from the Estate Labor in the plantation that the Britisher was able to instill and I have heard this lament from senior planters. It may be due to the Britisher being a stickler to discipline and timing. Have you forgotten about the how the hot bath was run at 7.25pm sharp every day, so that he would get into it at 7.35 sharp at the right temperature everyday as five minutes later and the bath would have got colder!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">That precision is not wired in our brains, and the Appu’s view of the sahib drops more than a few notches!! It is therefore this management practice that has to be fine turned, so that the workers know EXACTLY what standards to expect, devoid of unfair favoritism that varies from day to day, rather than being etched in stone! &nbsp;&nbsp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Lets then get back to the main point of the entry, which is finding the right caliber for the top job. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">There is NO question that Sri Lankans are capable. Overseas they shine in their work as compared with the same person in their home country! Why is that? As someone who has worked overseas and at one time in my early 30s managed a staff of around 100 in Santa Barbara, California in the US, it is simply that one knows what to expect from the people who work for you there and are generally not people who say one thing and do the opposite.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It then makes the task of managing easier. Here the foreigner devolves that task to a local, and stays ABOVE the fray, looking at the KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS of his job, and improving only on them, and delegating the subsidiary tasks to local managers! That I believe is one reason for this discrepancy I alluded to above. So when it comes to firing it is done through someone else, and done for an objective reason of poor performance and NOT a personal issue.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">How can we then manage our diverse businesses which are now getting to a size they are large enterprises that MUST be well managed to compete in a global marketplace. I know of personal friends who have struggled with this same issue, of hiring professionals to do the job, and found them wanting thereby taking the risk of getting an untested person from overseas to carry out the task, even at the obstacle of not knowing the language. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">I was involved in a case where the Bank of Ceylon 15 years ago hired a Britisher as CEO and so did the People’s Bank and I had dealings with both of them, and I did not think much of them at the time, but they were able to implement the changes the local people would have found hard to do. Why is that? They are removed from the daily politics. They are hired for a specific purpose, and their incentive or bonus depends on certain parameters being achieved. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">If we replicate that sort of discipline commensurate with a remuneration, hidden from the staff (remuneration that is) then I believe we will have able and willing young managers with some overseas exposure who are fit for the task. Hell we have over 25,000 students at any one time physically studying for degrees and masters programs in foreign universities. Can’t we find about 50 at the top end to manage some large companies that are growing by the day? We can of course.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;">So it is time the pontificating HR &amp; Management consultancy gets a grip on the reality, identify why they make the statement and do something to correct this! Not just find a reason to earn fees in recruiting from overseas as there is a surfeit of foreign job hunters currently that need placing somewhere at some suckers establishment!&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>http://kalpanakaranna.blogspot.com/2014/09/ceos-let-alone-managers-its-problem.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Ratmale,Minneriya,Sri Lanka)2